West Wing writer to script Facebook: The Movie

Davey Winder
Friday, 29 August 2008 20:17

Business IT - Networking

It seems that Sony has asked Aaron Sorkin, the writer of A Few Good Men and The West Wing, to script a movie based on the Facebook story...

"Welcome. I'm Aaron Sorkin. I understand there are a few other people using Facebook pages under my name--which I find more flattering than creepy--but this is me. I don't know how I can prove that but feel free to test me."

And so starts either one of the most bizarre hoaxes on Facebook since a green plastic frog asked people to be his friend and dozens agreed, or what will be one the most bizarre movie projects since whatever the last thing Paris Hilton was in.

I can reveal that it is no hoax, as Sony has actually confirmed it has hired Sorkin to write thing.

"I've just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page."

Actually the page was started by Ian Reichbach, a researcher for Sorkin. The fact that Sorkin admits his grandmother "has more Internet savvy than I do" does not bode well, especially as "she's been dead for 33 years."

Of course, the writer of a screenplay does not have to be savvy with the subject matter of his script before he gets started in order to do a good job - that's what researchers are for.

And Sorkin is nothing if not a good writer. A Few Good Men, The American President, Malice, Charlie Wilson's War, The West Wing are all testament to that.

Producer Scott Rudin can hold his own as well after the success of No Country for Old Men.

My problem is one of trying to envisage exactly how anyone, even a talented writer such as Sorkin, could turn the tale of an Internet start-up such as Facebook into anything even vaguely approaching an interesting movie. Not that this has stopped more than 4000 people from joining the Facebook group so far.

Still, rather than straight to DVD I guess this one could go straight to YouTube...